Virgin Galactic lays off staff as it focuses on next-generation suborbital vehicle

WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic said it will lay off staff and cut expenses to conserve resources for its next generation of suborbital spaceplanes.

The company did not provide specifics, including the number of people who are being laid off, saying it was still in the process of individually notifying individual employees and that it would provide more information in a previously scheduled earnings call Nov. 8.

In a memo to employees, Michael Colglazier, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said the layoffs and other reductions in expenses are intended to conserve the company’s funding so it can focus on development of the Delta vehicles, which are intended to fly more frequently and at a lower cost than its existing SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle, VSS Unity.

Colglazier, in the memo, did not state what impact the layoffs would have on operations of VSS Unity. Virgin Galactic completed Galactic 05, its fifth commercial flight of the vehicle, Nov. 2, carrying two researchers and one private astronaut. That was the last scheduled flight of the vehicle this year as it and VMS Eve go into an annual maintenance period. The company said after Galactic 05 that flights would resume in January.